Mange points to the left. “Dragon boy, Cat man, Laoch, I need ya ta go that way. I’ll take Fivi th’ other way ta get the jump on’em. Get ta the center ‘a town an’ wait fer th’ signal. Don’ ya dare hurt a single innocent person!” We look at the leader. He crosses his arms. “Don’t look at me like I’m some kind of savage!” The crowd in the center of town seems to be getting louder. They must be nearly ready to begin! “We’re runnin’ out ‘a time! Let’s do it!” We part ways from each other, separating into the designated groups. We make our way through the alleyways between the buildings. The leader grabs my armor by the collar, pulling me back as two guards run between the opening between the buildings in front of us. He pins me against the wall, holding my eyes to prevent their glow from getting us caught.

The sound of the guards footsteps stop. They turn back around and glance down the alleyway. I can’t see what’s happening! “You there! Why are you not in the central area?” One of the guards shouts. “Oh! My apologies! Our friend, here, was feeling ill! We’ll be out there in a moment!” the Feline says in a deeper than normal tone. The guards stand quietly for a moment, then I hear their footsteps run off. The leader releases my eyes. He was standing in front of me as the Feline covered us in his robes. That was an amazing reaction to narrowly being caught! We look up to see about open window on the building we’re next to. Scrambling to scale the wall, we manage to enter through the window! If everyone is currently in the town, then we should be safe here for the moment!

We peek out of the window facing the center of town. The crowd is large. If I were to use any of my widespread attacks here, I’d most definitely hit innocent people. This may get really difficult if we have to fight our way out. There’s a platform in the center of the town with a bloody block on it. I’m guessing this isn’t the first time it’s being used… As we observe the situation, the crowd seems to quiet down as three people are escorted from the other side by another human in a face mask. One of the three is Gibson! They’re all shackled together as they’re led onto the platform. They look heavily beaten, bloody, and bruised.

The three stand facing the crowd as the masked person stands to their side, rubbing his finger against the large axe in his hand. Soon after, a man in golden robes steps onto the platform. Bald and wrinkled, he appears much older than most humans. Possibly older than Roman. He stands on the podium holding a staff in one hand with a book in the other. He holds up the staff. “You’ve all been summoned here to bare witness to this execution! These three have betrayed humanity in one regard or another, and for that, they will be sentenced to death!” The crowd continues to hold their silence. They don’t particularly seem thrilled to see this happen.

The old man stands in front of the first person. A short, rugged male human with crimson hair on his face, but none on top of his head. “Robert Glennsfield! For the act of feeding and harboring monsters in your own residence, you are sentenced to death by decapitation!” The old man steps over to Gibson, who is next in line. “Gibson Harrison! For supplying monsters with human goods, and even naming a monster, you will be sentenced to death by decapitation!” The old man then steps in front of the last person. A younger dark-skinned girl with dreaded hair braided back. “Jabari Abdullahi! For allowing monsters to handle you in a deviant manner, you are sentenced to death by decapitation!”

The leader slams his fist against the stone wall next to the window, cracking it. “The girl was used by monsters, then must die for it?!” The leader begins exhaling smoke from his mouth as he clenches his teeth. “I may hate humans, but this… this is madness!” I fully agree! This is becoming harder to watch! The Feline looks around out of the window. “Where’s the signal? I’m sure Mange will be very direct since he assumes we’ll see it!” The leader is getting impatient as he scratches the wall, clawing away fragments of stone. “If he doesn’t signal us before the executioner raises that axe, we go in without Mange or Fivi!”

We continue watching as the executioner unshackles the chain connecting the first person to the others. Robert steps over to the block as the old man give a speech, holding the book up. “Blessed be thy Lord! We send these sinners to you in hopes that you may forge them into better people! Let them repent for their sins under your guidance, so that you may send them back to us as model citizens of our world!” The executioner forces Robert to his knees, making him lean forward, resting his head against the block. The old man looks back to him. “Any last words?” Robert stays silent as he awaits his execution. I turn to see the leader and the Feline seething with anger. This has them furious!

The old man looks back to the crowd. “Father in heaven! Take this man now into your kingdom!” The executioner stands silently next to Robert. He raises his axe above his head! Suddenly, he stops moving! Observing closely, it appears he… has an arrow in his head! The executioner falls limply from the platform towards the crowd! The people begin panicking as they had just witnessed the executioner’s death! The old man begins looking around in frustration. “Who dares?! Which one of you has saved these sinners?!” Seemingly from nowhere, Mange drops down onto the platform from the sky! He straightens his back as he looks put to the crowd!

Mange inhales a deep breath! He plunges his head forward, letting out a violent shout! “FLEEEEEEE!!!” He screams! The crowd begins scattering like ants! I think that’s the signal! I turn to the leader to see he’s not next to me! Before I realized what he was doing, the leader had jumped out of the window! He quickly runs to the center of town, rushing between the crowds of people! The Feline and I exit through the door of the building and follow after him! Many Heroes end up appearing as we storm the center of town! They all begin attacking us! Several casts of magic or arrows begin raining from the sky! The Feline throws fireballs to negate the spells most likely to hit us while I use my shield to block arrows!

Mange stands over the old man, glaring at him with a furious gaze! The old man is shaking as he looks up at Mange! “Y-you! Mange the Furious! You-you’re supposed t-to be in h-hiding!” Mange grabs the old man, lifting him up. “And the church ‘a the Nine is s’posed ta be dead! Yet, here we are!” As we all play our roles, the number of guards begin increasing! Some of them are being taken out as Fivi shoots them from a rooftop, their numbers keep growing! There’s no way this town has this many guards! The leader slips through everyone and takes the executioners keys before climbing onto the platform, unlocking the prisoners!

“We have come to save you! Hold still!” The leader says. Robert smiles. “Well I’ll be damned! Neva thought I’d be saved by a bloody dragon! Seems today’s ma lucky day!” The Feline and I continue our move towards the platform while defending against the ranged assault! Arrows begin flying towards the three prisoners and the leader! Mange takes his shield from his back and slams it into the platform. “Duck b’hind this fer now! Don’ go dyin’! None ‘a ya!” The old man shouts out! “Shoot this damned Jackal!” Mange chuckles. “Yer little guards can’t hurt me if they were tryin’!” The old man smiles. “They aren’t the ones to worry about!”

A silent, glowing arrow is fired from the distance! The arrow impacts against Mange’s stomach, blowing him from the platform, and causing him to drop the old man! I begin charging from Hero to Hero, attacking each that I can defeat in one hit or less! I leap towards Mange to make sure he’s alright! He stands to his feet quickly. “Th’ plans changed! We need ta go! Now!” Mange rushes back to the platform and jump onto it! I quickly turn around to finish off the lower level Heroes! The leader finishes freeing the prisoners as Mange pulls his shield from the floor of the platform! He holds it up to block whatever attack may come again!

“Dragon boy! There’s a big fish out there! I need ya ta get these three outta here!” Another arrow flies towards Mange, hitting his shield with incredible force! Mange manages to hold his ground, but his health takes a huge hit! Mange looks up from the shield. “Found ya, ya bastard!” Mange pulls his healing potion and drinks it! He then changes into that weird, fiery form before rushing in the direction the arrow came from! I get a free moment and flag down Fivi! She waves to me from the top of a building! I rush over to her location, signaling her to jump! She leaps from the building! I catch her and quickly set her on her feet! We run quickly towards the others to make our escape!

We catch up to the others and hold our ground! The leader blows a golden flame over everyone, healing our lighter wounds! “We need to go! Where’s Mange?!” The Feline shouts! The leader looks towards the direction Mange rushed to! He then quickly shapes into his dragon form and wraps around us! A large arrow pierces the leader’s body, tearing a massive hole in his body! The leader changes back into his humanoid form! The arrow made a massive wound on his side! I grab the potion from my side and splash it across the leader’s open wound! It begins to heal, but it’s taking too long! He’s going to bleed put!

The leader looks up at me. “Don’t worry… about me! J-just go!” The Feline picks the leader up on his back. “We don’t have time for a sympathetic death! We need to go, now!” I look back to the direction Mange ran off to! I don’t see him, but the big arrows stopped! We need to leave! We run towards the main gate of the town as blade wielding guards chase us! I wave my hand, signaling to the others to keep running! I stop and turn around, facing off against the pursuing guards! I wait for the perfect time, then unleash a wide swing, slashing across many of the guards! I follow up with Impactful Strike to take care of more! There must be a reason for this endless number of guards!

I look around and see the guards are flooding from certain buildings! I continue striking down guards until I make my way into a building they’re exiting from! There’s some kind of magical gateway! I work my way through the guards to the gateway, then use an attack to destroy the magic! It worked! The guards have stopped coming from here! Odd enough, the guards that had appeared from this location disappear. I continue through the town, working from building to building, destroying the gateways! After five of them, the flow of guards finally stop!

I step from the final building and look towards where Mange went. A sudden explosion destroys the building! I raise my arms and duck as a reaction! I look towards the entryway where the others fled. I don’t see anyone pursuing them, so I decide to check on Mange! I rush across the town to the far backside, maneuvering through the rubble of the exploded building! The battle I bore witness to appeared as two gods clashing! Mange was in that weird blazing form, whereas this human had been just as quick! He was a mountain of a human with long, golden hair! Armored in gold and white with twin blades, he was somehow keeping up with Mange!

The human stops long enough to catch his identification! Semarius, six of Nine! His name… he must be one of the people the Church of the Nine represent! At a massive level if 72, this man is above Mange, and the power difference shows!